What a storm we've had here for the past two days! But at last today, the skies were mostly clear and I could get back to the tasks at hand – my to-do lists and planning grids till the end of the year and on into the next one.
When I found the title image in my photo file, I thought….hmm…I know in the classical world, they read the oracles from various signs. Maybe there was a process for reading the future by interpreting storms and the direction of winds. Well…..here's more than you ever wanted to know about that – having to do with the flight of birds. And in the season's spirit of good will, this saves you from wending through a lot of very weird stuff on the internet.
Something else I'm doing with this post is breaking it gently to the Commedia characters that they won't have quite the starring roles they enjoyed in 2023-24. Still, they've managed to have their last word.
This autumn, as I looked through old sketchbooks and journals, I came repeatedly on references to dreams. Somehow (hello, Commedia clowns?!) a Watteau painting "Dream of the Artist" made international headlines with a UK ban on its export.
It was a sign, right? I've been wanting to get back to figures and faces so I decided to work on copying this segment:
As I've found before, it can be very instructive to try to copy a masterwork. From a preliminary small colour note in my sketchbook, I realized the dance of these figures would present a tricky challenge.
At first I thought I might do a careful layout on newsprint paper, then cut out the figures and trace them onto the canvas. That, too, became quickly confusing – so I reverted to a grid layout and preliminary pastel line drawing – nothing like Harriet Shorr recommended!
Just trying to equate the colours and dark-light tones made for many mornings' efforts.
The final outcome wasn't completely successful, but here it is – "Dancers' Dream – After Watteau" (copyright 2024).
There's another lesson here, too. Sometimes at first try, a plan doesn't materialize in the way I'd hoped – such as "Up from the Earth" from this year's Summer Camp:--
But then it comes around bigger and better at just the right time. Greetings from the Seasonal Seal -- barking from the comfort of swirling seas and his moss-covered rock.
